Making A Pass-A-Fist

It all started with a song. This new Industrial-Roots Rock-World
Music-Over Hyphenated style of a project orchestrated by Dave Perkins and
Lynn Nichols called Passafist grew out of something Perkins had written for
a film soundtrack. "I had done a song," explains Perkins, "that was going
to be in a movie that was being shot over in London last year. And I wanted
to do a kind of semi-industrial version of it, because: number one, I was
really into that vernacular of music; and number two, they wanted a song
that they could choreograph a dance scene to that was being filmed in an
ultra-alternative European club situation. Kind of a very decadent Berlin
type of night club. So anyway, I did this song called 'The Christ
Of The Nuclear Age.'"

When Lynn Nichols heard this tune he told Perkins how much he liked it.
"One thing led to another," continues Perkins, "and I said, 'Hey we ought to
write several more and do a record. It would be a blast.'"

Many avid music listeners probably do not associate Dave Perkins, who has
brought a kind of roots rock sound to his own solo record a few years back,
as well as bringing out these same rootsy sound in his production work with
Randy Stonehill and many other artists over the years, with industrial
music. But Perkins understands why this side of his musical nature has
never been seen.

"I've played virtually every music there is to be played, and have been
in bands which specialized in one or more of them. I think that most of the
stuff that you'd probably know about me is based upon what was done in the
Christian music community. And when I was producing a lot in the Christian
music marketplace, there wasn't a lot of that (industrial music) going on."

Both Perkins and Nichols want to make it clear that this is not an
attempt to capitalize on the industrial fad. In fact, industrial is just
one of this product's ingredients.

"Coming off the Chagall (Guevara) stuff," explains Nichols, "it was
something totally different. That sounded like fun, because it's largely
Dave and I and samples and machines. Although we have integrated very
ethnic African rhythmic aspects," adds Nichols, "with real players. So
we're marrying several different things together."

When Perkins and Nichols think back on their experiences with Chagall
Guevara's first album, the word disappointment seems to sum up the situation
best. "We were definitely frustrated with MCA Records," recalls Nichols.
"MCA didn't know what to do with the kind of music we were making. This
record company has never been good at taking the alternative genre, or
almost anything rock & roll -- outside of maybe Tom Petty & The
Heartbreakers -- and making it successful.

"We went with that company," continues Nichols, "because they had
convinced us that they were really in the midst of a change (for the
better), and indeed they were. When we were talking to them, we met with
several new people -- A&R people, marketing people, alternative college
promotion people -- they had hired and brought on board, and there were some
very strong, impressive, new people. And it really did look like they were
tooling up to go after that (alternative) market."

Unfortunately for Chagall Guevara, there were more changes on the way at
MCA that would not be in the best interests of the band.

"Then a Japanese company bought them out," continues Nichols. "Lots of
internal shake-ups took place, and a lot of the people that came on board
that were dealing with us at the time our record launched, were leaving or
being fired. The marketing director, who was a terrific guy, left right at
the point our record was launched. We had to wait a long time to find
somebody else."

These changes took a real toll on the album's chances of being exposed in
the marketplace. "We had a single worked to college radio that was called
'Violent Blue,' which, from where we were sitting, we
really didn't think it was a college single. Still, it did pretty well.
But we couldn't follow-up with another one, because the alternative
department, at this point, had been fired."

Yet, with all the label problems Chagall had, there were also some
positives Nichols can point back to. For one, the band, which loved to play
live, was able to tour Europe opening for the band Squeeze. Secondly, and
most importantly, the group made an album it was proud of, and probably had
a much bigger production than most alternative bands in the Christian
marketplace could ever dream of having. And the best news of all for
Chagall fans is that the band has never really broken up. Surprisingly,
with everything that went wrong at MCA, the label was still willing to have
the band make a second album.

"It was funny," says Nichols, "that during all this shake-up MCA was
dropping artists like flies. And we were so frustrated with them that we
said, 'Good, hopefully they'll drop us,' and it looked like they would.
But, of course, no, they wanted us to make another record. It sounds funny,
because with so many people wanting to get signed, and wanting to get a
deal, and here we are wanting to get out of one. It then took a couple of
months to wiggle out of our contract."

With Passafist being a record for a Christian label such as R.E.X., one
wonders if this will be a more explicitly Christian project than Chagall
was.

"I would say that there are lots of messages," explains Perkins, "and
that there are lots of concepts in there that are being chewed on by a lot
of people. And some of them are just from human beings living on the planet
in this day and age. And some of them are certainly obviously the same
thing plus the Christian mind-set, or a scripture centered mind-set. A lot
of the things are more cultural. Broadly cultural, and less initiated by
the church or the religious community."

"We're writing about a lot of things," add Nichols, "as viewed through
the eyes of a couple of people who are believers."

At the time of this interview, Passafist was still working on the lyrics
for this project, and they were unable to give specific examples. But once
can be optimistic, based upon these two individual's previous projects, that
this will be a highly intelligent and entertaining project.

When you consider Steve Taylor's new solo album and this new Passafist
project, along with the possibility of a new Chagall Guevara album someday
in the future, one is reassured to know that the individuals which made
Chagall such a welcome gift to the Christian marketplace are still busy
creating. Expect Passafist to stand out on its own as one of the more
anticipated projects released to the Christian marketplace, and not just
something to keep fans pacified between Chagall Guevara reunion albums.